It's not just the lifts that are upside down

Thanks to the comments section participant below who pointed us towards this tumblr, some of whose work I'm reposting here. I am not thrilled about re-posting this person's work on the blog because it would be better and more fair if everyone went straight to the tumblr itself. However, I think people are more apt to look at something that's right under their nose, and this comparison/breakdown is so well done it needs to be seen. I hope by putting the link here:

CuteIcePrincessTumblr

the link generates traffic for the tumblr, so we have the best of both worlds.

The diagrammed images below tell the story, but it's the analysis I'm reposting beneath the images that's the piece de resistance. It is, of course, sick-making that Davis White's utter crap is rated with or better than Virtue and Moir's exquisite technique.The sport and everyone who enabled this has disgraced themselves, pissed on figure skating in order to elevate a team of fakes, a disgrace that will live on because it has come at the expense of the greatest ice dancers who've ever lived.  Everything that has gone into making Scott and Tessa spectacular technicians has been so much pissing in the wind this past quad. The people who control this sport are disgusting.

Please, please read the analysis below the images. What Tessa and Scott are doing will bring tears to your eyes.

I LOVE the line running from his center of gravity to the her feet. I LOVE the analyst calling attention to the perfect alignment of Scott's feet. This is some of the stuff even skating know-nothings unconsciously register, that tells them Scott and Tessa are better. We're wired to recognize balance, harmony, efficiency, proper alignment.

(BTW, while it's a bit OT, anybody who doesn't understand how Scott can lift Tessa safely while she's pregnant shouldn't just consider slower speed and other modifications, but Scott's (and Tessa's) extraordinary stability, and the mechanics/physics of true stability.)

VIRTUE/MOIR and DAVIS/WHITE: Vertical lift comparison.

***THE DESCRIPTION BELOW IS NOT MINE, IS MADE BY FRIEND OF MINE. SHE STUDIED PHYSICS AND FIGURE SKATING THECNIQUE*

TESSA AND SCOTT -CARMEN -SKATE CANADA 2012

1) Tessa prepares slender -as if she was preparing for a vertical -and Scott gives the base.

2) Tessa is resting on Scott’s right shoulder; in split she gives the impetus to get vertical. NOW soars high in both legs with her strength. Scott accompanies the movement.

3) Same thing in step 3. Notice that Scott’s feet are always perfectly aligned, even in the following points.

4) Tessa is on. Now, since the position, to rhyme such, requires a considerable work of abdominal, Scott supports one of the two legs of Tessa to make sure that she reaches alone its center of gravity balance.

5) Tessa bend her pelvis backward to seek balance. With the strength of the abdominal muscles, biceps and quadriceps remains on. Scott always gives support on his right shoulder (the only obvious support) while continuing to accompany with his hand.

6) Scott leaves Tessa’s leg, the lift is perfectly in balance, the two arrows signify the action-reaction that Scott and Tessa engaged one against the other to achieve the perfect barycentre

7) Due to the fact that Tessa has a perfect center of gravity (as mentioned above the pelvis) Scott unbalanced forces. The figure shows how the line connects perfectly Tessa’s shoes with the midpoint of Scott’s sprrad eagle legs. The lift in fact, works mechanically.

MERYL AND CHARLIE -SHERAZADE -FIGURE CLASSIC 2013

1) Charlie is on the verge of taking Meryl in an “embrace”. Meryl in turn clings to the back of Charlie. Note already the 4 points of support that Meryl has.

2) Charlie puts a hand over Meryl and one beneath her, announcing that he’ll turn it over. Meanwhile, Meryl is always resting both arms on his back.

3) Charlie turns Meryl.

4) While he turns her, he lift her up.

5) Note that we are already seeing the first support which will be those of the lift. Meryl has her whole arm around the shoulders of Charlie.

6) Meryl is completely in a comfortable position. Again with the 4 points of support, both Charlie’s shoulders, and his arms.

7) Now she can raise her legs.

8) Charlie mentions to remove the arm and here already it messes up the balance. Note in fact the two feet of Charlie begin to have a different slant.

9) This is pretty obvious (unfortunately the video quality does not allow it at the most) that the two feet of Charlie are on two different imaginary lines. This is obviously due to the difference in weight unloaded on two feet, which in turn is due to the complete lack of gravity in this lift is not by chance, if it joins an imaginary line between the center of Charlie’s legs and Meryl’s feet, you do not get a straight line.

10) Meryl mentions for a second to leave the left arm from Charlie, while maintaining two supports behind his back and on both Charlie’s shoulders with the other arm. The imbalance between the two feet persists.

11) After less than a second when Meryl pulled off her arm, Charlie takes Meryl to bring her down.

I want to clarify that we are not talking of cleaning, which comes after workouts and workouts. We talk about the basic physics of forces must balance, and those, if the lift has been built in a certain way, will never change.

Both lifts, go ahead to check the protocols, were judged to level 4, although one is easier than the other. In fact, Scott says more MASS (obviously Tessa has a mass much more pronounced then Meryl) and must perfectly balance the weight on the tails of the blades, across Tessa, has a much more difficult position, she has only one support and must find her own center of gravity with the force of the abdomen and pelvis (while Meryl has the support of both of the two arms behind the back of Charlie himself, has no center of gravity and therefore did not need to use her muscles. center of gravity is in fact its about Charlie.


** All credits for this post goes to my friend LadyB.

More from

CuteIcePrincessLoveTumblr

The polka:

Well, they have a lot to be humble about

ETA: this is the most recent link to canadablue's video:

Canadablue's video comparison

Below is canadablue's comparison between Davis and White's lyrical-ish 2014 gala program to Rachmaninov and Virtue and Moir's exhibition version of Mahler, performed in 2010. The original canadablue video compares the DW Rachmaninov performance to three additional Virtue and Moir exhibitions, but the central points are on display in the video's initial look at Davis White in 2014 vis a vis Virtue and Moir in 2010. Those points are:

...to illustrate the difference in difficulty and quality, of both skating and dancing, and especially with regards to how the teams gain and maintain power. Skating to slow music does not necessitate skating slowly. A team's movements can be in time to the music while still allowing them to cross the ice with speed. (canadablue)

Davis and White's bastardized appropriation of what some argue is Virtue and Moir's style is annoying because it exemplifies the bastardization of the sport itself. Never mind the skating Virtue and Moir are executing  -  Davis White merely ape the style, imitate some performance aspects, and, when pasted atop mediocre skating presented with conscious pseudo-import, it's seen as the same thing. While no skater or skating team owns a particular genre, piece of music, or style, I believe in this instance that Davis White's gala exhibition is intended to run the table, mimicking Virtue and Moir, so as to assert that Virtue and Moir have nothing we don't. We're complete.

It's sad. This sport is spitting on itself by pretending this (Davis White) is as good as that (Virtue Moir). It's a further blurring of style and technique, refusing to acknowledge any distinction. Through Davis and White, ice dance encourages fans to see generic styling as indistinguishable from superior skating. Journalists of course follow along. Some even now assume there's actually an artistic mark**, and that the artistic mark comprises things like mood setting, impact, momentum, and other non-technical, non-executional, subjective intangibles.

I'm going to start with canadablue's Davis White vis a vis Virtue Moir Mahler exhibition clips, and later, make gifs.

What bothers me, really, is not Davis White seeming to put on their bastardized Virtue Moir; it's the on-purpose bullshit in their skating. It's how they gesture towards doing something, and, gesture made, drop it. That's enough for them to be declared better than teams that actually do it, and to defeat them.

While gliding in one phrase of their Rachmaninov program, Meryl  "extends"* her right leg to the side, below hip level, and with a sort of showy delicacy, brings it around the front. After she begins, Charlie - gliding in hand hold behind her, miles between his skates and hers - extends his own right leg to the same side as if to follow hers, bringing it around ... and then the entire attempt at matching lines just dribbles out. Deflates. Pfffft. Each of their legs just then dangle down, desultory, and they move into the next thing. The initial gesture is the whole thing.

That's them all over. They're pro forma ice dancers. They appear to initiate something to a phrase of the music, and, gesture made, I bet many people think they did something, such as achieved and sustained matching lines while gliding. Except they didn't. They "present" it as if something's happening, and it's not. That's pretty much all their choreography/skating is, while Virtue and Moir are actually doing it. The sport doesn't want us to appreciate the difference. Considering the enormous gulf between what Davis White do versus Virtue Moir, this is heartbreaking.

*Figure of speech. It's Meryl. She doesn't extend her legs.
**There's no need for any journalist to fact check what they say about figure skating when writing about the actual skating, because there's no accountability in journalism either. Nobody expects somebody writing about figure skating to actually understand the rules or know what's being scored.

Perception is reality

 

My sympathies, but the real crime was in ice dancing.

For more than a week, I've been writing, then tossing, a bunch of half-written posts about the recent ISU vote to keep figure skating judging anonyous.There was nothing to say that isn't self-evident, or that's how it felt when attempting to bang out a few remarks about the results. Among those in the media who weighed in, the most frustrating take was Beverly Smith's.

Here's Beverly Smith's article:

Beverly Smith fails to get down to business

In my preliminary post efforts, I kept circling, but not nailing down, what really bugs about Smith's article, apart from the fact that this is the sole knowledgeable legit media figure skating writer who has called out Davis White's skating, and yet her article on the ISU vote is a waste of time. It never gets to the heart of the actual problem with anonymous judging. Then, I got it. She's disingenuous.

Smith employs a bunch of rhetorical questions such as - why would such and such a country vote for anonymous judging? Do they think this or that? Do they perceive the situation thus and such instead of thither and yon? It's hard to comprehend, bemoans Smith.

Spare me. Smith is a smart woman. She knows that voting itself is political. The USFSA can cover itself in sanctimony while voting "No" to anonymous judging now that Meryl and Charlie have won an ice dance gold medal thanks to anonymous judging. That's political. That's voting theatre. Same with Korea calling out the ISU then rushing to safety by voting to keep anonymous judging.

Smith's questions show a reluctance to acknowledge that figure skating is as corrupt as it is, and, more disappointing from Smith, as corrupt outside of Russia as it is. Her perspective appears to be that figure skating has wandered down a path that leads people to perceive that it's untrustworthy, and anonymous judging reinforces that unfortunate perception. Even though, and apart from Russia, of course, figure skating is totally trustworthy, because Smith never gets around to saying it's not. Surely if figure skating weren't on the up and up, she'd be able to produce a few non-Russian examples of dubious results. She's not saying, after all, that the ISU's inability to keep Russia on the straight and narrow is the problem with figure skating today. She's saying anonymity is.

All of which makes me wonder why she bothered writing her eulogy for the Sochi ice dance outcome. That's where a set of imposter American ice dancers were handed a gold medal over the Canadian team that actually won the event.

As the Olympic figure skating competition got underway, Smith observed that Davis and White were constantly scored higher than Virtue and Moir despite core deficiencies in Davis and White's skating, deficiencies that violate the standards and criteria set down in CoP. However, the reason this situation came to pass is apparently a big mystery. Smith never asked the basic journalistic questions of who, what, when, where, why.

Was Russia behind it? I don't think Smith believes that. Then who is behind it? How did it happen? A bunch of well-meaning judges, technical specialists, referees, and Federations honestly assessed Meryl and Charlie's wide-stepping, slow, posing, two-footed, blade-flatting jungle-gymnastics as meeting CoP criteria better than Virtue and Moir? Not possible. Amateurs can see Meryl and Charlie blatantly flout CoP. Did Smith think it was purely coincidence, or the fault of Marina/Virtue Moir that every single season, at the last possible second, a key, showcase element/component in Virtue and Moir's programs had the rug pulled out from under it by the nebulous ISU grapevine?

This scoring could not be done without the blessing of David Dore nor without deals and influence peddling by the USFSA. Nor without the cooperation of Skate Canada. The Wizard of Oz didn't give Davis White unearned scores and unearned wins over the past quad. It was people. Powerful people in the ISU, USFSA and Skate Canada.

I'm over the "Bad Russia" narrative. Smith disappoints when she pretends amazement that Russia voted to abolish anonymous judging. Russia has benefitted from anonymous judging more than anyone, she seems to imply. If that's her belief, why did she ever bother lamenting the Sochi ice dance results, and Meryl and Charlie's Grand Prix final victories? Who does she think got that done? Russia? A bunch of well-meaning judges? If everybody but Russia is well-meaning, then what's the difference if judging is anonymous or not? Everybody's acting in good faith regardless!

Smith is challenged to distinguish between actual issues and perceived issues. The whole sport is. The whole sport weasels out of core issues by talking about perception, and dodging reality. The sport can't be trusted But why not? Just because the judging is anonymous and there's no accountability, it can't be trusted? Are there results in recent times that suggest anonymous judging enables unfair results? if so, how about mentioning a non-Russian example? If Russia is the seat of corruption, why not call for the ISU to police the Russian Fed, instead of calling for an end to anonymous judging?

People don't trust figure skating because it's not trustworthy. It's perceived as corrupt because it is corrupt. The cure for that is for the sport to conduct itself with integrity. Until that happens, everybody, including Smith, is going in circles.

The things we learn, Part 2

I've split the current post in two in order to have a new comments section. The original comments section is pushing 300 and I think becoming unwieldy for everyone. A new post is en route, but by splitting the existing post in two there can be a fresh comments section now.

I'm learning there's not enough meaningful difference between a lift done in a show and a lift done in a competition. If it's L4 in competition, it's L4, end of. The supporting partner's blade run speed, the liftee's rotational speed around her partner's shoulders/neck, the degree and type of pelvis support in the final position, the type of skating done before and afterwards, the degree and nature of the prep before, and the set down/recovery after - all of this insufficiently mitigates the risk Virtue and Moir undertake.

Before I was schooled, I'd have said that in this lift, Tessa has her core pasted to her husband and, again, is actually using her upper chest/back/neck to arch back. And I'd have said that she's carefully set down at almost no speed, with her feet planted particularly wide apart (For Tessa. For Meryl Davis it would be typical.). Now I know better.



Some people who've watched this video of Scott and Tessa skating "Let it Snow" seem to believe Tessa isn't just pulling a Meryl Davis by skating without fully engaging/opening up from her core, specifically, her pelvis and hips, as she's used to do, but that she also doesn't extend her free leg above hip level - or even at hip level. I've learned those people need their heads examined.

Lesson: This here was an accident when
they lost their timing out of a lift. Momentum
and all. One of these days they'll really mess
up, and Scott's penis will go right in.

Addressing a comment below, asking how does one explain the part "where she's supported only by her thighs and is arching everything including her pelvis": how do you know she's arching everything including her pelvis? From this (key screencaps)?

Observations. Her knees are spread apart, which eases pressure on both pelvis and lower back. She's positioned fairly high up on his torso, his hands are under her skirt supporting the small of her back, and as she rolls up her spine out of the upside down position, you see her lower pelvis is against Scott. She's working the hell out of her shoulders and really extending, dangling those arms to extend the visual impression of the oversway. She's got more of her rib cage engaged than when she holds a more extended arch, but gravity's helping her here. Her hips, lower pelvis and lower back are secured by Scott, going by how that part of her body remains in place/still as she rolls up her spine.

The bottom of the sweater just above the hem hangs a little stiffly. Tessa rotates around Scott's shoulders, she extends her arms over her head while her upper body is upside down, and that sweater never rides up. The skirt gets pushed up and flipped up, but that sweater is super-glued to Tessa's skirt.

_______________________
*Others have a different take. They believe that while the non-pregnant Tessa was recovering from her second round of CES surgery, she was spending tons of time in the gym, and thrilled to be there, as it had been so long. Tessa said this, so they know it's true. Prior to her second surgery, she didn't even feel like an athlete, because she couldn't train like one in a regular gym. Afterwards, she could, and what a treat. Besides, she clearly acquired a bucketload of muscle she hadn't had in Vancouver.

While finally, at long last, able to "train like an athlete", and while acquiring new muscle, which, we're told, burns calories more efficiently than fat, Tessa got wider and wider through the fall, apparently because she'd decided to slack off a bit and gorge on steroid-injected chocolate throughout the summer and through the balance of 2010. Who doesn't pile on the pounds in Nov-Dec while aiming for Canadians in January, followed by the 4CCs in February, and prepping for their World Championship title defense in Moscow.

P.S. Reflecting back on Scott's rampage through London on Victoria Day weekend (and Tessa's birthday!), and also reflecting on the blog's prior referencing of the movie Soapdish, I'm kind of curious if maybe some of Scott's buddies weren't going around London playing the part of "Rose" to Scott's "Celeste." Yes, Scott Moir is a London favorite son, and it was a big weekend. Still, without Tessa next to him, he doesn't stand out in a crowd. Furthermore, both Scott and Tessa seem tinier in person than they do on television. Yet so so so many people spotted Scott Moir that weekend. Many of the sightings were presumably authentic, as in, not plants deputized to tweet his whereabouts and behavior. But, as to recognizing Scott Moir in the first place, I wonder if that part didn't get a little boost. Going by reports of their behavior, they were amping it up. A bunch of guys tweeted about his boorishness, and how many guys, even in London, are ice dance fans who can pick Scott Moir out of a crowd of revelers, even assholes, without a little assistance?

ETA: to supplement the discussion below, this link: What is public relations provides an irreverent but on point overview of how public relations minions operate. Try to visualize Virtue and Moir's bastardized, Rube Goldberg set-up - family, friends, mentors, pros, etc. all wanting to play their role. And at the end of the day, the people who are spending the most time on it are those surrounding the celeb, not the celeb themselves. It's set up, everything's in place, and then the celeb (or Virtue Moir) just steps in for the photo op, publicity stunt, or other. It's not Scott and Tessa running the logistics. They have their lives and schedule, and what's in the area of p.r. is coordinated by others, so they just have to show up. That's how it works.

The things we learn

Fitness blogger Carolyn Berk Eriksen 4 days after giving birth.

For example, Tessa Virtue isn't as fit as a fitness blogger.

Eriksen is a bit older than Tessa. And, actually, if we saw Eriksen's body in profile, I think we'd see that Eriksen's midsection, while ripped to here and back, had yet to rebound to flat as a washboard. Or would we? We all know head on is the best view for assessing what may be going on with somebody's body front to back. If the photo is taken from a height, we've got a scientific certainty. Anyway, it's for damn sure Tessa Virtue's abs are nowhere near as good as a footballer's wife who blogs about fitness.

Incorporate the fact that Tessa's angled to the camera,
her left side partially concealed by her left arm, and her
right arm is draped along her right side,
we know there's no baby in there. Hell,
we can't even be sure that's not Flat Tessa.

Berg Eriksen got a lot of shit for her postpartum selfie. How dare she shame ordinary new moms. Others attempted to calm the waters, noting that Ms. Berg Eriksen's only job was to keep fit and maintain her body.

What I think I'm learning is that if Tessa Virtue had been, say, an Olympian, a recent gold medalist, whose only job was maintaining her elite level competitive/show skating physical fitness, then it might be possible to believe she trained throughout much of her first pregnancy, both on the ice, and in the gym with the brilliant Maria Mountain.*That's the sort of woman who might have developed powerful new guns, glutes, and upper back, newly powerful muscle groups she might recruit to assist other muscle groups that needed a breather. Maybe a woman like that could have returned to the ice in good order not too long afterwards, and some weeks later be set up to compete the short dance that had been trained and performed throughout much of the pregnancy. Not just the short dance, but about one minute of a free dance. She might even have spent a lot of the gestation time preparing for that very goal, under the supervision of a world class trainer, a smart choreographer, and her physicians.

Alas, the woman in question is only Tessa Virtue.

Tessa's opening her chest, shoulders, upper back and neck.
The rest of her is Meryl Davis-ing it. The rest being her
pelvis, hips and solar plexus (which, FYI,
includes the waist). Scott has his hand supporting
the small of her back. Just as they did it at the 4CCs.
P.S. Isn't there usually a slimming effect when
someone arches back?

I've spent the better part of a week, blog-wise, trying to figure out what shape a post about fans, drunk Scott, fan whiplash and sham manipulation would take. A lot of fans who participate on this blog have watched VM for years, are familiar with their social media tactics, and yet every time the sham rattles their cages they react as if it were new. Some people claim it's the teen fans who fall for it, but I think those who are susceptible span the generations. The common denominator is that those who fall for it are addicted to virtual drama in many forms, are fandom-oriented outside sport, and, when their buttons are pushed, all common sense goes out the window. It's so lovely to see Moirville recognize this and play into it. It's so lovely to see the entire SPORT recognize this and play into it.

It doesn't even have to be Scott:

Fedor Andreev 

Fedor and Tanith

Fedor and Tessa

This was briefly a thing.

Jana/Fedor's photo shoot doesn't mean much; it was Marina's insinuations. Alas, the partnership dissolved before it could pick up any of Fedor's gentlemanly, clean-cut, vaguely antiseptic, trust-him-with-your-daughter romantic steam.

Fedor and Meryl.

This from a guy who had "Not sure" in his "sexual orientation" category on myspace. Guess he's made up his mind.

Some of those who went into hysterics after Scott rampaged through London on Victoria Day and Victoria Evening, snorting coke off sundry bar tops, sexually harrassing girls until he was thrown out onto the sidewalk and vomited into the gutter, apparently used to believe that Scott and Tessa were together. Sadly, Scott's holiday weekend debauchery confirmed for them that Scott and Tessa aren't together, and never were. It's always being confirmed anew. Knowing Tessa as we do, she'd never date, let alone marry, let alone procreate with this kind of degenerate:

2014

200....9? 8?  
He's always been a ho.

2007ish

I guess the difference between photo shoots designed for social media, and Scott's carousing on Victoria Day, is that fans understand the photo ops were staged, but unhappily concluded there was no agenda behind Scott's Victoria Day antics. Scott had no way of knowing his pub crawl with the lads would end up on social media:

Karaoke slut.

But, any day now, the i-phone will become a thing, and before we know it, somebody's going to invent twitter. When that happens, Scott Moir best watch himself.

For me, it's interesting that images seem to produce more anxiety than video. The reality show didn't send fans panicking into the streets. They were too busy shielding themselves from second-hand embarrassment. Images, OTOH:

Can't possibly be engaged to Tessa.

Nor have a pregnant wife.

Nor be married to, and parents with Tessa.

The Rift.
They know we know they know we know they're lying.
They don't care.

Dating

Dating

Dating

Platonic

Yet some fans think images are information. After four years (which is what it's been for what seems to be the majority of the fandom), I still don't get that.

P.S. - at some point, when I muster the will, it might be interesting to trace the origins of the Marina disaffection repeatedly asserted in the comments section. IOW, get down to, when did "you" (whomever you may be) first decide Marina didn't have VM's best interests at heart. Get right down to the first case, and see what it is.

I think many figure skating fans have already read Jacquelyn Thayer’s most terrific new interview on her popular Two for the Ice web site, which features this quote from Alexandra Paul of the Canadian team Paul/Islam:

“After Skate Canada, [Krylova] decided that we needed more of a bold costume,” says Paul. “The gray was too subtle and too light and she wanted us to stand out more and look more dramatic. As soon as we got these costumes made, we stepped on the ice for just a practice in them, and it was just amazing. Everybody was saying how much different it made the program look, just from a costume change and looking bolder on the ice. So you can thank Anjelika for that one."

I loved the new costumes. Particularly Alex’s beautiful dress. But it continues to disturb, how much the conversation about ice dance revolves around everything but the actual skating and dancing. "Impact" is a word I'm learning to hate in connection to ice dance, because in practice it means "impression", not content. "Effective" is in the same category. Yes, ice dance, as in all figure skating, has a performance component, but a reading of the rules and guidelines reveals that the performance component is actually a technical category, just as "presentation" used to be a technical category under 6.0. A lot of fans don’t bother understanding that, because the broadcast commentators prefer to perpetuate the erroneous idea that it’s “opinion” “taste” and “trend”. It doesn't mean acting, chemistry (connection, as revealed in skating and dancing, is different than "chemistry"), program theme, music, style, or personality. It is all grounded in execution, techniqiue and skill. I don't know if judges are dumb, explicitly schooled in all of this bullshit and none of them ask how come the rules aren't getting all of the emphasis, or if it all goes to the corruption that's been driving the sport, most particularly this past quad.

There are a ton of great quotes from Paul/Islam in this article, including pretty rare specifics about the Olympic environment, training schedule and pressured, constricted practice time, but I do want to mention this:

“You know, when you see a team for example going around hand-in-hand, just stroking, stroking, stroking, that’s something that we want to stay away from as an ice dance team.”

Well, they'll never win Olympic gold in that case, but good for them.

It’s a shame that the “fashion” for ice dance is not to actually skate or dance on ice, and IMO it may have played a role in their ridiculous 18th place finish in Sochi. I think if ice dance is going to be about fashion, trends, impact, effectiveness, and style, the rulebook needs to reflect this. Right now we have a rulebook saying one thing and everybody else – the judges, the commentators, the journalists, the skaters – telling us the rulebook is irrelevant to the outcome. The rulebook is about skating skills, yet we all know you can have the best skating skills, and execute the most and the best in a given competition, and it will be blithely treated as a sidebar to the competition with no explanation as to why an event that is about skating skills considers them an also-ran in the outcome.

Elsewhere in skating, here's Tessa, Scott and SC team members at ACGM. I guess they're still part of Team Canada, or else they've forgotten it's post Olympics 2014, not post-Olympics 2010. Tessa is certainly dressing like it:

And this article from Faces Magazine, where Scott and Tessa allude to judging politics, and getting the short end of the stick, but then default to saying all the skaters are technically sound, so the outcome comes down to style and personal preference, so what can you do. We all know this is exactly how it's laid out in CoP.  As usual, Tessa and Scott take a topic, walk in a big circle around it visiting the sights, and wind up back at zero.

And this:

.”

David Dore is the vice president of the ISU. He's the highest ranking ISU official from a figure skating background. The President, Cinquanta, is a former speed skater.

Dore presided over an Olympic quad during which Davis White received scores they didn't earn, according to CoP's own rules, standards and criteria, and during which Virtue and Moir were stripped of points and continuously had showcase elements gutted under one pretext or another, the last time after they arrived in Sochi and learned that they risked losing points on their step sequence if they left in their spectacular showcase straightline lift. Yes, because it's VM that have timing issues, not DW.

How did this happen? For four years Dore, the vice president, had no idea what was going on in the ice dance scoring? He had no idea that Virtue and Moir were being low-balled and held to a double standard? He did his job in earnest, and it was others, lower down in the ISU hierarchy, who elevated DW and lowballed/trip-wired/whispering-campaigned Virtue and Moir, and it never ever came to his attention?

There you go. #great person. He's WONDERFUl for skating.

That's the "sport".